1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for people participating in exercise or strenuous activities, and more specifically, to portable equipment for cooling athletes participating in athletic events.
2. Description of Related Art
Americans love sports. We watch sports, we play sports and we encourage our kids to participate in sports. Playing on a sports team is part of growing up. For example, each Saturday morning of the spring, summer and fall parents and children from across the nation gather at tens of thousands of athletic fields for kids' soccer games, baseball games, football games, and other such sports. As kids get older they have the opportunity to participate in numerous other sports, many of which can be strenuous and physically demanding. Other common sports include basketball, cross country running, tennis, lacrosse, baseball, softball and biking, to name but a few.
Participants in physically demanding sports typically work up a sweat as their bodies adjust to compensate for the heat generated by the physical exertion. Sometimes players can become overheated to the point of endangering their health. Sadly, each year a number of children and high school age kids succumb to heat exhaustion during strenuous physical activities, often suffering heat related symptoms. Tragically, this can sometimes result in death.
At organized sporting events the coaches generally keep water coolers on the sidelines for players to drink. For medical emergencies there are chemically activated cooling bags. However, these chemically activated cooling bags tend to be somewhat expensive and are generally reserved for local use on sprains and injuries rather than for general cooling purposes during the course of the game. College teams, and even some high school teams, sometimes place cooling fans or vaporized air blowers near the sidelines for players to use. Such cooling fans are expensive, require a source of electricity, and tend to be bulky and unwieldy to transport to and from games.
The present inventor realized a need for a portable, inexpensive cooling device suitable for use at sporting events.